This invention relates generally to a cushion device for packaging meats and more particularly to a new and novel bone plastic cap that is positioned over exposed bone areas to cushion the area to prevent the exposed bone portions from piercing the outer vacuum sealed bag and also to eliminate bridging of areas where bacteria can grow faster than desired.
In the modern-day processing of freshly killed meat, problems occur during the packaging process where vacuum sealing of the meat in an outer bag is employed. Large cuts of meat are often processed for sale to a butcher rather than to the ultimate retail consumer. The local butcher then re-cuts the meat for display and resale to the purchasing public. Since these various types of meat cuts can be quite large and can vary in shape and in the cut of meat, the problem of preserving the cut in an outer vacuum bag manifests itself whenever an exposed bone portion tears the outer vacuum sealed bag. Portions of exposed bone can protrude from various places in the meat cut and may pierce the outer vacuumed bag. The destruction of the vacuum seal caused by the exposed bone pieces permits entry and rapid growth of bacteria in the package, thus reducing the shelf life of the meat. The visible evidence of bacteria growth is very apparent and can destroy the fresh appearance of the package of meat.
In order to overcome this major potential bone puncture problem, prior art solutions have attempted the use of separate cushions over the exposed bone area with a cloth material impregnated with wax or other soft pliable materials to accomplish a protective padding. Still other cushions have been tried using flat sheets of plastic material over the bone area. Both of the above have a distinct disadvantage of being labor intensive in application. The beeswax coated cushions did not permit the viewing of meat underneath the padding since it is not transparent. In addition, most types of padding did not solve the problem of eliminating the bridging pockets of entrapped air. Separate smaller cushions were labor intensive to apply and difficult to keep in place over the exposed bone portions during insertion into the outer vacuum sealed bag.
In addition to the above problem, certain types of meat are cut so that large concave areas of indentation occur. As a result, the protective packaging material may bridge the area creating pockets of air in which bacteria can also grow quite rapidly. This bridging and consequent air entrapment further reduces the shelf life of the meat. An important function of this invention is to reduce the likelihood of bridging by designing and thermal forming a plastic part that roughly conforms to the cavities and contours of the cut of meat. Elimination of all entrapment of air is an important intent of the invention.
For a more detailed discussion of the problems using prior art cushion devices, reference should be made to the applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,822, issued on Jun. 14, 1977. The above patent also details an attempted solution to the problems using a solid one-piece bone shield that was formed of a low density polyethylene plastic with a 121/2% ethylene, vinyl acetate blend. This particular material was readily available in the period between 1970 and 1980. The previous bone shield was somewhat rigid as formed and contained preformed grooves between pleats that defined channels which were designed to carry meat juices. The plurality of pockets in the bone shield were also designed to trap the fluids that were squeezed from the meat and to produce the fluid-filled cushions to provide protection at the exposed bone areas.
This attempted solution, while appearing satisfactory in theory, did not practically operate as designed and was later replaced by the applicant's new and novel bone plastic cap of the present invention. Another problem soon surfaced in attempting to solve the problems before described. In order to obtain a better protection on the exposed bone portions, it was felt that a thicker cushion could be used. The gage was 0.015 mils. This thicker material of approximately 0.015 gage possessed a memory that had an inherent inclination to balloon away from contact with the meat surface if the outer bag lost its vacuum thus permitting occasion for further bacterial growth. However this led to the bridging problem becoming more severe. Whenever a thicker material was used to cushion exposed bone, the bridge became stronger and could not collapse tightly into all indentations on the meat as the outer bag was evacuated. As a result, the before described pockets of air resulted where bacteria could grow faster. In other words, the reduction of one problem (bone tears) caused an increase of the other problem (bridging with increased bacteria growth in air pockets). A more detailed discussion of this problem will be given when referring to FIG. 2 of the drawings.